The Song of Songs

King Solomon's Confession

Who wrote The Song of Songs and why?Who and what is it about?How do we know it's an opera?What was music like in ancient Israel?How does the ancient Hebrew music system work?What is the Shepherd Theory and is it true?What is the Lover's secret and why does the King need it?

The answers to these and many other questions can be found in

The Song of Songs - King Solomon's Confession

by Aryeh Naftaly

An Explanation, English Translation and Dramatic Adaptation of the World's Most Ancient Opera

The Author's Introduction

Everyone has heard of The Song of Songs.[1] Despite being one of the shortest books in the Bible - only 117 verses in all - it is by far the most controversial and widely-discussed book of Scripture of all time. From its authorship to its meaning to its purpose it has been analyzed, criticized and spiritualized and had every letter, word and phrase turned upside-down and inside-out by the most astonishing variety of rabbis, Christian clergymen and academic scholars. There are thousands of interpretations, commentaries, sermons, books and treatises written about it - even marital guides and self-help books - not to mention myriad paintings, musical compositions and other works of art based on the characters, imagery and lyrics of The Song. It has been translated into dozens of languages and into English dozens of times. It contains all sorts of familiar phrases we see on wedding invitations and hear in Hassidic and Israeli songs such as "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine," "Let me hear your voice," "Great waters cannot quench love," "The time of the songbird has come," etc. as well as many Jewish liturgical songs including "L'cha Dodi" ("Come, My Lover"), the song which ushers in the Sabbath Queen. The great Rabbi Akiva called it the Holy of Holies. Still, The Song of Songs remains a mystery, an unsolved riddle. Is it, as many Bible critics contend, a compendium of wedding verses and love songs from throughout the ancient Near East? Is it an allegory of the relationship between Israel and God, as the rabbis would have it, or between Jesus and the Church, as the Church Fathers believed? Or is it just a pretty collection of verses about love, sensuality and nature, as many modern translators and interpreters posit? And who wrote it? King Solomon? King Hezekiah? "The Shulamít"? An ancient Christian? No one in particular? Rather than addressing these many questions piecemeal, a Sisyphean task to say the least, I hope that what I propose here will provide all the essential answers and put even the most skeptical minds at rest. Perhaps I should first mention what this book is not. It is not another affirmation or refutation of an allegorical/kabbalistic/feminist/chiastic/erotic or any other theory. It is not yet another "new" translation which cleverly substitutes apricots for apples, juniper for spruce or wine-skins for raisin-cakes (although the reader may be surprised at what some of the words do mean). It is not only a reconsideration of the text and the subtext, but of the context as well. Having made an exhaustive study of interpretations, treatises, commentaries and translations of The Song of Songs, ancient and modern, religious, secular and scholarly, I have come to a heretofore undiscovered series of insights so simple and obvious that I believe they will change forever the way the world understands The Song of Songs. I do realize that my realistic approach to the subject is likely to draw fire. Some people to whom I merely mentioned my idea reacted with the kind of terror of heresy usually associated with Satanic cults. Let me point out that until a mere twenty years ago, Kabbalah was generally considered incomprehensible, too esoteric or downright dangerous. "Kabbalah" is now a household word and the Zohar a household book. The same was true of the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslav. Now tens of thousands flock to his grave in Uman every year. As to why no one has made these realizations before, I can only remind the reader that the best way to come to a false conclusion is to begin with a false premise. In this book I have stripped away all the preconceptions and prejudices which have clouded our understanding of this amazing work of art so that we can see it for what it truly is:The Song of Songs is an autobiographical, confessional, tragicomic oratorio or opera in which Sh'lomó (Solomon), Anointed King son of Davíd, tells of how he threw away true love and with it his chance to save the world and bring about the Messianic Era, instead bringing schism and destruction to the Israelite kingdom and the world at large to this very day. On a slightly different note (pun intended), I have also found the key (ditto) to playing this oratorio - and all Biblical music - as written - seeThe Music of the Bible(click at top of page)

An Explanation, English Translation and Dramatic Adaptation of the World's Most Ancient Opera208 pages including Background History ♦ Complete Exegesis ♦ Explanation of the Trope System ♦ 37 color and black-and-white illustrations from throughout historysold as PDF file